Don't Make Major Changes the First Year

In August of 2009, 1 week before Brian and I got married, we became homeowners. In the whirlwind of festivities surrounding the wedding, the hugeness of our purchase didn't fully sink in.

Of course, with a house comes grandiose ideas of what you can do with it, and while I am sure Brian had some of his own... here are a few of mine:

• Make the house as green as possible.
• Redo the yard (or shall we say ornamental grass root ball) into a productive vegetable garden.
• Replace appliances with energy and water saving models.
• Make the 'loft' into a library.

I also have some nice structural plans for in the future, but to prevent you from thinking I am way over the top, I'll save those for another day BECAUSE we were told by everyone: family, friends, co-workers, and even our realtor said,

Do not make any major changes until you have lived there a year.

So we didn't. Ok... we kinda did.

• Make the house as green as possible.

1. I make all of our cleaning products now, with the exception of a few I buy from the Earth Friendly Products company--one of the leaders in Green Cleaning. I will post my recipes in a later post, as I have gotten requests from several people.
2. We do our best to not buy things that are single use plastic, or plastic at all if we can help it.
3. We compost!
4. We don't use paper towels any longer!

I realize that we still have much to do on this front. Some things that spring to mind:

1. Clothesline
2. Solar Panels
3. Rain barrels/grey water system

• Redo the yard (or shall we say ornamental grass root ball) into a productive vegetable garden.

What a project. My mom and dad came and helped remove the overgrown yard over Easter Weekend while Brian was at work. We raked, shoveled, and then tilled the land. We successfully grew 180 onions, 1 pepper plant (the peppers weren't happy with the tomatoes that grew un-trestled over where they were planted). Our 4 tomato plants grew amazingly and the bounty has been overwhelming. The vines are red with fruit.

In the picture to the left, you can see a tomato plant and peppers sticking up through the black plastic. We used plastic to aid in mulching the soil with compost, and also to keep weeds from springing up uninvited. Weeds will be a long battle that we will face.

We have lots more up our sleeves for our yard this year... including beans, garlic, fruit trees! Stay tuned! We are also working on raising bees and chickens (not together!)

• Replace appliances with energy and water saving models.

We got new toilets. Lovely Dual Flush TOTOs. They are an amazing difference from the f-ugly one piece toilets that ran and rocked. But we have much to do in this department, including replacing a washing machine that doesn't clean so well, and a refrigerator that is possessed by something.

• Make the 'loft' into a library.

My dad built us a beautiful built in bookcase. Pictured to the right. It is the main piece for our library. Now for redoing the floor and adding seating and a desk.

So. Now that the year is up. We can start making major changes.

So with tools in hand, follow us in our life on top of (and sometimes in the midst of) the fog.